The numbers are in from multiple sources and it is clear that John McCain got flattened tonight like a bug on a windshield. And the pain is only beginning because McCain produced at least three damaging clips that will be replayed in a loop for the next three days. He insulted the intelligence of a questioner (and the nation) by suggesting that no one knew who Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae were until last month. He referred to Obama dismissively at ‘That one’, and he refused to shake Obama’s hand after the debate.
All of those incidents reinforce McCain’s crippling image as an an angry, arrogant, dismissive, old bastard. McCain was crushed in the debate but he will be steamrolled into oblivion by the post-debate coverage. It used to be that the press loved John McCain and gave him every benefit of the doubt. But then McCain picked an unqualified beauty pageant contestant as his running mate and had to hide her from the press. In fact, to justify his hiding of the beauty pageant contestant, he used the Republican National Convention to literally declare war on his base…the national political press.
Once he did that, he was toast. McCain started out in the hole, as a member of a political party that is only slightly more popular than a case of chlamydia. He didn’t have the support of the political base of that party. Once he declared war on his bestest buddies on the Georgetown cocktail circuit, he had no friends left and no one to give him the benefit of the doubt.
McCain doesn’t have an argument or the political skills to compete with Obama. His running mate is an international punch-line. The opportunities to change the tenor of this race are diminishing rapidly, along with McCain’s plausibility as our next president. I expect to see further erosion in the Republicans’ prospects in all races, and in all areas of the country.
Are you trying to say that this debate format did not, in fact, favor McCain?
You can use the archive search engine to confirm that I wanted Obama to accept McCain’s challenge for town-hall debates (at least a few of them) because I had noticed McCain’s diminished performance.
I believe you. But really, I was being sarcastic. The media narrative coming into this was that the format favored McCain. I don’t really think the format is at issue at all; I think when you have McCain and Obama on stage together, Obama is bound to leave the better impression.
It’s like saying I’m not bad at free throws so if I compete against Michael Jordan throwing free throws the format favors me. Jordan is still going to kick my ass, no matter what the format.
Plus, McCain is such a nasty old man. “That one” should sink him.
.
… Convention to literally declare
waswar on his base…"But I will not let myself be reduced to silence."fixed, thanks.
It seems they did shake hands right when the debate ended. Andrew Sullivan has the photo. It was later that McCain evaded another handshake. Not that it will matter what really happened – media narratives rely on impression, not absolute facts.
They did shake hands right before McCain stepped in front of Brokaw’s teleprompter, so it won’t really be an issue. Plus, it looks like McCain was indicating for Obama to shake Cindy McCain’s hand. I don’t like McGrumpy, but further analysis shows that this wasn’t the put-down we thought it was.
Of course, if roles were reversed and Biden had done this to Palin, Republicans wouldn’t care about the details and would go after him with relish until he apologized. But Republicans get to operate by different rules than we do, mainly because the media enables their insanity.
im done with politics tonite
we need something warm and fuzzy
http://blog.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=blog.view&friendID=330887946&blogID=439306875
i forget how to put a picture in
McCain couldn’t find anyone to appear on his behalf on Charlie Rose? How bizarre is that?
.
(The Nation) – While the media focused almost obsessively on the DNC’s spectacle in Denver, the country’s most influential conservatives met quietly at a hotel in downtown Minneapolis to get to know Sarah Palin. The assembled were members of the Council for National Policy, an ultra-secretive cabal that networks wealthy right-wing donors together with top conservative operatives to plan long-term movement strategy.
CNP members have included Tony Perkins, James Dobson, Grover Norquist, Tim LaHaye and Paul Weyrich.
Bosom Buddies: John McCain and John Singlaub
According to an article in the Nation, on the evening of the Democratic National Convention, CNP members met at an undisclosed location and selected right-wing religious extremist Alaskan Gov. Sarah Palin to be John McCain’s VP. And why not? She is one of their own, their New Hope. But Sarah is a newbie at all this, a relative child: John McCain’s bosom- buddy relations with these racist, fascistic groups go back decades!!!
“The John Birch Society” by Barbara Aho
≈ Cross-posted from idredit’s diary — McCain’s Radical Past: Nazis and death squads links ≈
"But I will not let myself be reduced to silence."DogEmperor is posting more regularly again.
Keep sharing the good info! Thank you!!
Jonah Goldberg can’t believe a black person can be undecided. Frankly, I can’t believe anyone can be undecided.
apparently he’s never heard of JC Watts..
It’s like the chickens voting for Colonel Sanders.
Dear BooMan,
Please don’t underestimate Gov. Palin. In a sense we all got lucky, in that Senator McCain picked her before she was ready for prime time. But she has everything it takes to be this century’s Huey Long. After Sen. McCain loses, assuming that all goes well and he does indeed lose, she’ll have four years (or perhaps eight) to prepare her answers. She is probably the most dangerous politician to come down the pike in a century. Underestimating her would be a very foolish thing to do.
Unless she get impeached for abusing her power as governor after she loses this election.
I have to agree. I have a feeling we will see her again like – what is the saying? Something about a bad penny that keeps coming back? – and the next time she will be prepared.
Sarah Palin= Huey Long
Okay, my cranium exploded.
Please explain.
I don’t have a clue who this Huey Long is. Nevertheless, you have not seen the last of the lovely Sarah. She WILL be back, and the next time she will be better prepared and more dangerous than ever.
Sarah Palin has become a national laughingstock. She’s a female Dan Quayle, although she even makes Dan Quayle look pretty smart by comparison.
You can’t compensate for a lifetime of stupidity and lack of curiosity with a few years of learning talking points. Look at George W. Bush, who is also smarter than Palin. He was groomed for the presidency for six years, has now been President of the United States for eight years, and the guy is still a bumbling embarrassing fool.
I know Jerome Armstrong also wrote (after Palin’s RNC speech) that Democrats would be battling Palin for 10 years. But I’m sorry, we didn’t even have to battle Reagan for ten years — just three elections in eight years (counting 1988). And Palin is, to put it gently, no Ronald Reagan.
She’s a joke. Troopergate will determine her future in Alaska, but her future in national politics is sealed.
Not by a long shot.
Watch.
She’ll be around for decades if her extremist Christian connections do not knock her out of national contention.
Watch.
AG
If she’s dumb enough to run again, she’ll be a curiosity like Mike Huckabee.
Actually, I think Huckabee is poised to build a new conservative coalition from the rubble that the GOP is leaving behind.
I think Palin will be a side-show. She’s going to be discredited pretty thoroughly by the end of this mess. But the Huckster’s brand will be looking pretty damn good to the social conservatives in the coming years. He might be able to parlay that populist image and the likable demeanor into a leadership role in a new Republican party over the next decade.
The Republican party is going to be a complete shambles by the time this mess is over and is going to need a serious rebuilding. If the social conservatives have a standard bearer that is going to be able to remold the party in their image it’s Huckabee, not Palin.
All of that notwithstanding, she will be back, and back again, and back yet again.
2000-2004 was probably the best election cycle for someone like palin to emerge because those years saw the crest of the republican wave. she owes her current political fortunes to the desperation of a discredited party whose fortunes are not simply waning but being swept aside.
i expect her to remain a curiosity and a draw at republican events but she’s headed off to join geraldine ferraro as a historical footnote. this is the year she and her family will wax nostalgic about for decades to come.
Sorry to have inflicted injury on your cranium.
Liberal types (I include myself) have a history of not taking seriously people like Palin. Are her “programs” like Long’s? No. At least not at the moment. But look at how she has run (or tried to run) Alaska, her ability to inspire fierce, even violent loyalty (Quayle never had that), her lack of concern with truth, her hope to make VP stronger than it has been under Cheney. People thought Long a buffoon as well, but he came much too close to ruling the U.S.. At least, for the moment, Palin has no brown shirts. But it is foolish to underestimate someone as totally ambitious and totally untroubled by lying, who can connect with a significant group of people who feel they aren’t given enough respect.
I certainly hope that she’s come on too quickly and thus made too many mistakes. Perhaps “troopergate” will be her undoing. But if it isn’t, take her seriously now or regret it later.
Wishing your cranium a speedy recovery.
.
unless you meant him being a maverick with dictatorial methods.
Long was shot on September 8, 1935, at the Louisiana State Capitol in Baton Rouge; he died two days later at the age of 42. His last words were reportedly, “God, don’t let me die. I have so much left to do.”
"But I will not let myself be reduced to silence."But Huey Long was the opposite of a southern (or Alaska) republican.
http://www.hueylong.com/programs/share-our-wealth.php
In a national radio address in February 1934, Huey Long unveiled a plan called “Share Our Wealth”, a program designed to provide a decent standard of living to all Americans by spreading the nation’s wealth among the people. Long proposed capping personal fortunes at $50 million through a restructured federal tax code and sharing the resulting revenue with the public through government benefits.
“I expect to see further erosion in the Republicans’ prospects in all races, and in all areas of the country.”
megadittos!!
ain’t it sweet! we are in for a landslide and long long coat-tails
I think McCain is done, and I hope he is done, but there is still 27 days folks. McCain should have been done six months ago, given that he has an R after his name, but we’ve seen how close this thing has been.
I remain optimistic, but I’ll believe landslide when I see it. It’s a shame that Dems would finally get control only after Republicans have thoroughly broken the military, emptied the treasury and destroyed the economy.
I still think a lot of folks are underestimating the possible impact of Friday’s Troopergate revelations. I don’t think that report will be very friendly to Gov. Palin. There’s a reason McCain’s campaign has been trying to discredit it and shut it down for the past month. Perhaps Branchflower will wimp out and say he can’t prove anything, but the evidence I’ve seen is pretty darn convincing.
Anyway, on to the next daily spin war…
I did so love this debate because those dam pundits couldn’t come up w/ any reason why Obama won. He did not just hold his own, but swatted the fly and the pundits never saw the “swish.” We did.
We have been messed up as a nation. At least 8 long years. Take it as domestic violence, then think about it as external. This idea of creating fear, same as Idi Amin, is to make you lose your humanity. Financial insecurity, physical insecurity, create distractions, etc. Idi Amin had the damn Play Book.
This playbook the McPa’s are using is so damn old. Their ancestors wrote the damn thing. Divide, create prejudice, ethinic divisions, sexist shit. So small.
History is such a damn well.
We have a chance, right now, to change all that shit. Sort of like that abused woman you try to persuade to not go back home (old habits, prejudices) and you know if she doesn’t then it’s over. That’s where this nation is at this moment. The abused woman.
So, here’s a motto: No shit, No More. No IDIs (no Idiots Damn Idiots}. No Idi’s. Hah!
Let’s get back to work, getting this experience in nonsense reversed and out of here!
Dassit.
No more needs to be said.
Thank you.
AG
No, Thank You, for listening to my rant and understanding.
Dassit! Love that, have to use “Dassit” from here on! November 4th I hope to say “Dassit!” With JOY! And some serious libation to my ancestors!
I thought that Obama won, mainly because he spoke intelligently about all issues while McCain dealt in repetitious sound-bites, repeating many lines I’d seen him use in the first debate. McCain really lost me with the repeated claims that America is the ‘greatest force for good in the world’ and the laboured gratitude to the navy veteran for his service. Perhaps this plays well in small-town middle America but it doesn’t play well to non-Americans. Lucky for McCain that we don’t get to vote!
After a night’s sleep even I have to agree…it wasn’t what was said that killed McSame, it was how he said it. McSame came across as mean, condescending, dismissive, arrogant, and most of all fake.
He said “my friends” two dozen times. Not a person in there was his friend by any stretch.
When he waddled over to pat that Navy CPO on the shoulder who gave the Iran question, he looked like a frail old geezer.
His time has passed. His only answer to the economic problem was a spending freeze on everything but defense, and he said on defense that he was going to cut defense pork. Nobody gives a good gad damn about defense pork when you’re spending 10 billion a month in a pointless quagmire in Iraq, John.
You lose sir. Good day.
Obama’s voice is beautiful. There is no other word for it. Listening to him speak is like listening to Frank Sinatra in his prime. He is incapable of singing a wrong note, and every word is clear and from the heart.
McCain’s is ugly. Nasty ugly.
Obama is a singer.
McCain? A wheedler. And when wheedling doesn’t work, a nag. That doesn’t work? A bully.
Obama wins on sound alone.
Do not discount this. We do not generally think of the power of sound, especially in this image-heavy, TV dominated world. It’s just…there, like the seasoning on food. Most people consume television info that is channelled through laughably inferior speakers. The average TV set has about 95% of its design input and expense dedicated to visuals. I was listening to the debate on good speakers that are driven by a well-adjusted, well modulated amplifier, and Obama’s voice sounded so good that out of curiosity I turned them off and listened on my 20+ year old TV’s nasty little sound system. Very few people have voices that translate to good sounds on bad speakers. Sinatra had such a voice, which was one of the main reasons for his success. So does Obama. It’s a gift; he knows it, and he uses it very well.
The great jazz musician Trummy Young wrote a song for the Jimmy Lunceford band in the ’30s called ‘Tain’t Whatcha Do, It’s The Way ‘Atcha Do It.
Yup.
It was a huge hit at the time.
Yup.
Well…’tain’t whatcha say, it’s the way ‘atcha say it, too.
Yup again.
A lot of what Obama said last night was fairly lame.
“G” rated for family viewing.
Dumbed down out of the necessity to attract less than intelligent voters. (I watched some of the audience reaction shows both on on local NYC stations and on cable. DUH!!! There is a serious IQ dump going on in America!!! Too many chemicals in the food.)
But man…did he ever he SING it!!!
Obama on voice points alone.
Later…
AG
Hi Arthur. Absolutely agree with every single word you just wrote. I listen to people’s voices and I make judgments sometimes unfairly based on their voice alone. Voices matter to me and when they grate on my ears it’s all over. My own voice while not grating is boring..very low key and quiet but just boring.
Since you mentioned Frankie-one of my all time favorite voices you get double points for this post.
Voices…the old show ‘All In The Family’ had to have one of the very worst intros with Edith singing and that was so bad that half the time I literally couldn’t watch that show unless I managed to tune in after the intro was over. I’m sure I missed some great shows just because of the sound of her voice at first and even thinking of it now makes my ears hurt.
Even when Obama hems/haws he sounds like music compared to McCain. I count myself as a qualified Obama supporter but as you said-points alone just for his voice.
Totally agree with you on that one. Obama is very soothing when he speak, or else quietly funny.
McCain has that nasty whistling noise when he talks that is so grating I can hardly listen to the debate. Between that and his physical expressions when he speaks, I just can’t imagine how anyone could vote for him without being a small, mean, and nasty little troll of a human being.
OH yes!
Problem is…small, mean, nasty little trolls are a dime a dozen in red state America.
In Joe Sixpack urban and white working class America too. There are any number of them in the middle class suburbs as well. Bet on it. (I’ve been to those PTA meetings…EWWWWWWW!!!)
Always have been.
Who do you think elected Nixon, Reagan and the Bushes?
Not that there aren’t good-hearted folks aplenty as well.
Just that there is such a thin line between major and minor here.
Let us pray that it all works out this time.
AG
Ugh. Did you have to remind of those suburban PTA meetings, with their QueenBee moms and Kingpin dad husbands? Ill have nightmares tonight just from thinking about them.
FWIW, I see a lot more Obama support here this year than we ever saw for Gore or Kerry. That’s not to say there aren’t McKKKain idiots around, but they seem to be less prevalent. And what support there is for Johnny seems pretty soft to me.
A friend was telling me that her babysitter and her husband were not going to vote for Obama because he was black, and when she asked how they were doing now compared to 8 years ago, the woman admitted that were strapped, had no health insurance, and her husband is having trouble finding work (he’s in the trades). They decided to watch the debate last night with an open mind and re-think their voting strategy…I still have to find out what they thought of it.
Stuns me that people are so open about the shallowness and racism in their thinking…I’ll just hope that enough people can stretch their minds a little more open and vote for the right guy this year.
It just might be.
Sea change time.
Or maybe quantum leap time.
We shall soon see.
AG
I always enjoy your writing, but today you are right on–and terrifying. What really strikes me is your line about heresy. It is amazing that Christian leaders haven’t had the nerve to identify it as such.
I’ve read alot about the abetter, like William Donohue, who are being repaid for supporting the bishops through the worst of the sex abuse scandals. When bishops like Burke and Martino get directly involved in politics, they are buying insurance–just like the Godfather did, so that when they have a body to bury they can assure it is made pretty.
Did anyone else notice how tight McCain’s suit looked? Maybe too many nights on the banquet circuit. It added to the look that he was going to explode, both physically and emotionally, on stage. His contempt towards Obama, the people in the audience, even towards Brokaw (who started the evening practically fellating him on camera) was poisonous.
You wonder how come the Republicans, who have been great at creating candidates that are all facade no substance, screwed up here. I mean, inventing Dubya, a dry alcoholic that people would like to have a beer with, how’d that happen, considering that Bush would rather urinate on the commoners rather than have a beer with them. But this time McCain somehow got through the screening process.
McCain stood there, a rather unpleasant old man who is clueless about the problems that America faces and what to do about them. You can’t sneer away recession.
Here’s something I thought was weird that nobody seems to have mentioned: While McCain talked, Obama would sit at his desk and pay attention. At least at some point, while Obama talked, McCain was wandering around the stage, sort of moving his lips and gesturing at the audience. To me he looked really nuts.
I was watching on CBS. Maybe other stations didn’t get the shot. I don’t remember which questions were involved. I hope somebody can get the clip.